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Colorado roads to see another $300 million per year for 5 years

By Tim HooverThe Denver Post

Posted:
12/14/2012 09:56:06 AM MST

Updated:
12/14/2012 11:44:15 PM MST

Traffic moved along Interstate 25 Tuesday afternoon, October 2, 2012. The Valley Highway will be shut down between Santa Fe and Hampden for the presidential debate at the University of Denver Wednesday. Karl Gehring/The Denver Post (THE DENVER POST | Karl Gehring)

Colorado's roads will see an additional $300 million in funding per year the next five years thanks to a new plan to free up more money sooner.

Gov. John Hickenlooper and Don Hunt, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation unveiled the plan Friday, which is called the Responsible Acceleration of Maintenance and Partnerships, or RAMP, program.

The agency in recent years has built up more than a $1 billion cash balance, saying uncertainty in federal funding meant the department had to have projects fully funded before beginning them. After numerous short-term exemptions, Congress in July passed a four-year extension of the federal gas tax.

Now that there's greater reliability in funding, the department can start more projects sooner, Hunt said. But he said the department's investments in new accounting software also helped.

Despite funding uncertainties during the recent recession, there have been concerns previously over the department's cash balances. A state audit in 2000 said the agency's $336.2 million cash balance the year before was "higher than necessary" and recommended the agency better monitor cash flow and construction progress.

State Rep. Max Tyler, D-Lakewood, was one of those who questioned why cash balances had grown so high recently, but he said he was satisfied Hunt is solving the problems.

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"They'd had very, very conservative fiscal constraints on the money and did not have a good cash management system," Tyler said, "and they're taking steps to break it loose."

The state's transportation commission will have to decide which new projects go into the mix, but Hunt said those could include repairing the badly deteriorated U.S. 50 in southern Colorado and installing a fire suppression system in the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Meanwhile, the department said it can accelerate the completion of the widening of Interstate 25 from Monument to Woodmen Road to three lanes in each direction; a new interchange on Interstate 70 near Grand Junction; and widening the eastbound stretch of I-70 in the Twin Tunnels in Idaho Springs to three lanes.

In addition, the program will allow the department to increase its road resurfacing efforts by an additional $86 million to $200 million this year.

Numbers

$1.2 billion

Colorado Department of Transportation annual budget

$1 billion

CDOT's cash reserve

$1.5 billion

Additional funding over five years — through a two-year extension of the Surface Transportation Act and a four-year extension of the federal gas tax — earmarked for road and tunnel upgrades, including the Eisenhower Tunnel, left

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